Often Christians say they are saved. But what is it?
How are they saved? and i would think it is in the christian bible somewhere, but does it actually letter by letter say, All you have to do is to believe Jesus died on the cross, and that make you saved?? It is this part i can not understand.
As long as you believe you can do anything you want, even sin and be immoral?
Is there no inward change that must happen for a Christian to be saved?
I'll give my experiences as a former catholic. Just from my observation and/or experience.
1. I notice a lot of people have personal experiences or spiritual awakening when they come to christ.
i.e. they come to a point in their life that they nearly want to give up and they to get rid of that pain or sin they may be experiences and doing. A lot of people say "they can't do it on their own" (I hear off and online) and can't depend on people around them so a lot of times they develop a spiritual need to reconcile themselves by believing (having conviction) in what god tells them and what they do for god.
2. Once they find that conviction (belief or have faith), there's a lot of learning and application involved. That's life long.
3. Then I think they have another spiritual experience, that "clicks," and they experience spiritual awakening.
4. When they Know that christ died for them (as said in scriptures) and their experiences relate to that i.e. someone helping them and what they learned, they are "saved" from their sins.
Saved, in my opinion, is more of an metaphor that means one's conviction and actions leads them to a relationship with god through/as christ and thereby relieved of the consequence of sin.
Once one has that conviction for awhile, their faith in the thereafter lets them know they won't die but be with god forever. They are saved from death.
There is a profound inward change. One RFian here said that he saved his whole family by telling them about christ (of course among other things).
I think unlike many other faiths, the salvation is in conviction and the conviction leads to action.
Whereas maybe others say it's the actions and experience of them that leads to conviction.
Hope that helps.